That's me. I received an email with a picture showing how my great niece took all of her clothes and dumped them on her bedroom floor. Her mom (my niece) was not too happy with having to clean this up. As a child you don't see the outcome of having to then clean up a mess that you created because someone else will come along and clean it up for you. Well this conversation turned to my mom reminding me of two incidents that occurred when I was a toddler. Both dealt with a mess that she had to clean up. Being a mother myself I can now appreciate what would go into cleaning up a mess created by children. I have to share this with you because it is tied into this right now as Holy Spirit is showing me this. My niece, the one that I reference just a few thoughts ago was at my house as a little bit older then a toddler I would say. She is a few years older than my daughter and they were in the bedroom playing and it got a bit quiet so we went in to check on them...to my surprise this is what I found. Pictures on the walls made with crayons. It was the type of wall paper that you could clean/remove/take crayon marks off of it. This is highly unusual for me but in that moment I do not recall getting upset or yelling I just removed the crayon marks from the wall paper. We did correct the children and told them that was not good what they just did.
Ok back to my story. After my mother shared this with me I jotted it down so I would not forget the details she shared. Both incidents I was around toddler age, maybe a little bit older for the one with my sister involved since she is 2 years younger than I am. I was young and my mother used to iron our organza dresses and she tells me it took a lot of time to iron these dresses. She comes into the bedroom and she sees my sister sitting on the bed and all the organza (she said there were not a lot of them but there still were the ones I chose to use) dresses out of the closet. I took them all out of the closet to try them on my sister. Creative right? I probably thought she was my little doll baby and she needed to try on some outfits. I did love as a child playing with my Barbie dolls, Little Kiddles dolls (I even had the Little Kiddles Klub House. I think my mother bought one for each of us when we both had our tonsils taken out at the same time) and my Chatty Cathy doll too. I was the type of child that would have done well if you sent me to charm school of some sort (I think that is what they called it back then?) My mother always had an eye for fashion and she did a really good job when she would select outfits for us. There was a season in our lives since my sister and I were only 2 years apart that she would dress us in similar dresses. I remember one year because I loved this outfit I think I must have been in upper grade school or just about to go to high school and hot pants were in fashion with fishnet stockings too. They were the most beautiful shade of a softer blue velveteen type of material and she even got the matching fishnet stockings to match. My mother always had a flair for fashion. We always had an Easter hat to go with our outfits along with Mary Jane shoes and fancy type of socks to match along with the purse etc., including a corsage to wear also made by a local florist. My mother even got me go go boots to go along with the hot pants outfit, she really had an eye/flair for fashion.
My mother mind you was divorced and worked very hard to give us the nice things that she sacrificed for herself to bless us children. She worked the majority of her jobs in straight commission type of jobs to earn a living. I believe I was 5 years old when she and my father got divorced. We as the children never knew if she struggled to meet financial obligations for she shielded us from that. As children we only saw that all our needs were met and then some too.
Second story now...….My mother baked a lot and she did bake oatmeal fruit bars a lot. I guess I would watch her bake them and so my mother was doing laundry and she comes into the kitchen (see the laundry back then was in the basement no built in laundry room luxuries like we have now in the main portion of the house) and she says she doesn't even know where to begin to cleanup the mess I created. I was in the middle of this mess around me. I guess I thought I was baking oatmeal bars kind of. I apparently took all of her baking pans out of the cupboard and I put Crisco shortening on all of the pans then coated them in either flour or oatmeal. I think it was flour. Can you imagine this mess? I am sure there must have been flour all around since flour is easy to spread if not being used properly right. In my mind I thought I was being creative and baking for mommy.
Oddly enough, I still enjoy fashion today and I like to bake so maybe prophetic acts in the making even as a child? I chuckled when my mom reminded me of this yesterday and said hey I still like to bake now. I really do make the oatmeal fruit bars I have a recipe and sometimes I bake them half of the pan with apricot preserves and the other half with cherry pie filling.
So that is my little portion of creativity at a young age. As you know I attended Catholic grade, high school and a Jesuit University as my schooling/education. I remember my mom reminding me that I think it was in 2nd grade that the teacher wrote on my report card that I had to learn discipline. I think she said I could not just get up and sharpen a pencil just because I wanted to. Trust me, attending Catholic schools did instill discipline in the students. Back in second grade I was being creative in my thinking pattern. I probably thought to myself the pencil needed to be sharpened so just go and sharpen it. What good is a pencil if it is not sharpened for one to use in school. I think I turned out pretty good and do know that I do tend to be a rule follower. I champion the underdog a lot when I see something that is wrong coming against a person that I think it not right or it is out of line. I am not timid or shy when it comes to defending others. I think I shared this before. I used to volunteer as a lunch mom when my children were in grade school. I championed the children that I thought were being treated on their lunch hour like they were in a boot camp of some sorts. I would stand up to this one teacher and say things like "this is their lunch hour not boot camp they are children let them enjoy their lunch." The children liked me I think because I was kind to them. I was called into the principals office and given an ultimatum that I could no longer volunteer if I did this again. Sure enough, the same teacher was picking on a child and I stood up to this teacher to defend this child (oddly enough both times they were not even my children I was defending.) I knew the rule so I could no longer volunteer in the lunch program. I remember some of the children coming up to me and asking me if I got fired, I responded no I do not work for the school I was a volunteer. You know I came across a Christmas card the 8th grade girls sent to me thanking me that I stood up for them. This must have been the same time when I purchased I think it was masses to be said for the children at the school from the Our Lady Of Lourdes Shrine I used to go to on a regular basis. They actually read my card to the children over the school PA system when they did the announcements for the day. My dear long time college friend can verify this for our children went to the same school at the time.
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